Porcine Mucosal Model (PMM)

Developed by the founder of Extherid, the porcine mucosal model is our flagship testing platform. This model is highly customizable and can be easily tailored to fit your needs. Our PMM is a reliable and predictive model that enables rapid screening of your experimental products.

Model overview

  • We create explants from mucosal tissue harvested from pigs raised for human consumption. Porcine tissue arrives at our facility 1-4 hours after slaughter. Explants are maintained in a cell culture medium within transwell plates. We can conduct experiments on various infection states, from planktonic to biofilm, with this model. The PMM can be used to measure the antimicrobial properties and efficacy of your formulations as well as cellular toxicity and the inflammatory response of mucosal tissue.

Relevant Therapeutic Areas

Medical Devices

Explore how our expertise with tissue models will help your medical devices through clinical trials.

We can use the PMM to test for bacterial adhesion to and host cell toxicity of experimental devices.

Our reactors are an excellent testing platform for materials in development. We can determine how bacteria will adhere, form biofilm, and grow in the presence of your experimental materials.

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Urogenital Health

See how our ex vivo mucosal tissue assays are ideal models for urogenital health.

Since much of the human genital tract is composed of mucosal tissue, the PMM can be used for predictive preclinical testing of compounds or products related to urogenital health.

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Inflammation and Biocompatibility

Learn how we can measure the inflammatory response of tissue to your experimental compounds.

The PMM offers a unique way to investigate inflammatory cytokine concentrations in a cost-effective manner. We can perform ELISAs and multiplex assays to determine whether experimental compounds are pro- or anti-inflammatory.

We use our porcine skin model to study inflammation by testing the tissue for known biomarkers associated with inflammatory processes. We can apply experimental formulations onto large or small areas of skin and then harvest uniformly sized explants with a biopsy punch. These explants are analyzed for inflammatory cytokine production.

Our human skin model is an excellent way to examine the influence of your experimental product on inflammation. Our wounded or intact human skin models will help determine whether your compounds have pro- or anti-inflammatory properties.

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Infectious Diseases

Find out how our customizable infectious disease models will help accelerate your preclinical testing to achieve your goals in a cost-effective manner.

Mucosal tissue is an ideal environment for microbial growth, making the PMM an excellent application for testing the efficacy of products to treat infectious disease pathogens. We can test for efficacy against planktonic and biofilm infections with this model.

Porcine skin testing is commonly used to test formulations or compounds that are applied to the skin (e.g., presurgical products). We can track efficacy against host flora or seed the skin with known pathogens and track how they respond to the compound. We can apply this testing to large or small areas of skin.

Our reactors serve as a testing platform for drugs and devices intended to inhibit biofilm formation on abiotic surfaces. We can determine whether or not, and to what degree, bacteria form biofilms in the presence of your materials.

Using our human skin model, we can perform research on known human pathogens. The most common organisms we use are methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii. Infections can be planktonic or biofilm.

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